The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 25, 1992 Page: 7 of 20
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NEWS
THE RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1992 7
Andre Marrou, the Libertarian Party's candidate for president.
Libertarian presidential candidate visits Rice
by Chris McKenzie
libertarian presidential candidate
Andre Marrou outlined his plans to
cut American government to its Con-
stitutional bare essentials of protect-
ing civil liberties to a group of Rice
students and faculty at the
Farnsworth Pavilion Tuesday night
His speech, laced with humor and
sarcasm towards the two major par-
ties, focused on the "bulldozer" of
American government that is "driv-
ing downhill" and squashing the lib-
erties of the American citizens on its
way.
Marrou and his party's plans for
change stem from the Libertarian's
principles that "challenge the cult of
the omnipotent state and defend the
rights of the individual.''
Marrou promised to repeal the
personal income tax and abolish the
Internal Revenue Service. His plan,
he says, "will leave an average of
$300 per month in extra money for
the average working family."
To repair the economy, Marrou
proposed to rescind excessive regu-
lation of business. He claimed that
American companies are driven to
set up shop in foreign countries not
because of cheaper labor, but be-
cause the government puts unfair
regulations and excessive taxes on
them if they stay.
Marrou called for a change in the
present "insane" policy of defense.
He stated his plans to bring all Ameri-
can troops back to America and stop
paying for the defense of other coun-
tries.
Marrou also used the word "in-
sanity" in the area of foreign aid,
stating that American workers are
being penalized by taxing them to
send money overseas. If nothing else,
he said, we should cease selling arms
to countries, many ofwhich later use
them against us.
Marrou said he supported full gun-
ownership rights and congressional
term limits. He also proposed to de-
crease government bureaucracy by
not replacing those government em-
ployees that resign.
In the question and answer pe-
riod that followed his speech, Marrou
was asked to voice his views on abor-
tion. Though the Libertarian party
has no official stance on the issue, he
stated that he is pro-choice, but sup-
ports ways in which abortion can be
curbed, such as lifting contraceptive
distribution regulations, making
adoption easier by taking it out of the
hands of the government, legalizing
the abortion pill RU-486, and a new
biomedical technology that he called
"fetus transplantation from womb to
womb."
Reactions to Marrou's speech
were generally positive. Conor
Prischmann, a Will Rice freshman
who "plans to vote Democratic," said,
"He had a very friendly manner...I
was impressed by his sense of hu-
mor towards issues, but sometimes
that seemed to trivialize things that
should have been addressed more
seriously."
Prischmann continued, "He made
a pretty good presentation, except
when opposing viewpoints came up—
he sort of ignored some questions."
At one tense moment during the
question and answer session, an uni-
dentified man with a British accent
asked Marrou if deregulation of busi-
ness would result in large companies
squashing smaller ones. Marrou im-
mediately went on the defensive, and
the question became an argument.
After several exchanges, Marrou, in
araised voice, ended the discussion,
dismissing the idea as "socialist."
"The whole business with that
British guy was out of control," said
Will Rice senior Tom Karsten, a Lib-
ertarian. "Just from my point of view
as a listener in the audience, I would
say that Marrou didn't handle the
question very well.... Whether the
author of the question was right or
wrong, I thought the least that
Marrou could havedonewasaddress
it"
Poor questions mar Koppel's broadcast
by John McCoy
ABC Nightlinds Viewpoint,which
aired from Stude Concert Hall last
Wednesday may have brought na-
tional media exposure to Rice, but
the content and organization of the
show left many faculty and students
disappointed.
Titled "The Media in Politics, Re-
porting or Distorting," the 90 minute
program was billed
KiptA/C as ^e layman's
/vCVrO chance to confront
ANALYSIS media figures
about their cover-
age. Nightline assembled fourteen
panelists including ABC News Presi-
dent Roone Arledge, talk-show hosts
Phil Donahue and Larry King,
spokespeoplefromtheClinton, Bush
and Perot campaigns, and columnist
Molly Ivins.
A common complaint heard
around campus and in the Houston
media was the political nature of the
questioners.
"I had thought that the design
was to give the common person a
forum to discuss the media," said
History lecturer Matt Taylor, who
currently teaches the Brown College
course, Campaign '92. "Instead, we
got all these tribal interest groups
making complaints and giving
speeches and protests. Objectivity in
reporting was never brought up."
Houston ChronicleTV editor Ann
Hodges called the event "an elabo-
rate exercise in futility," saying "pro-
grams like this are only as good as
the questions panel members are
asked to address."
"You knowyou're in trouble when
the most profound point of the
evening is made by Larry King," said
Jocelyn Shadforth, political science
lecturer on Mass Media and Political
Behavior.
'You knowyou're in
trouble when the most
profound point of the
evening is made by
Larry King.'
—Jocelyn Shadforth
The question s reflected the group
assembled, and audience members
were in Stude Hall by invitation only.
According to President Rupp's Assis-
tant Carl MacDowell, the invitation
breakdown went as follows: of the
approximately800seats left after cam-
eras and equipment had been in-
stalled, Rice and Nightline each got
to invite 400. However, the bulk of
the Rice invitations were for balcony
seats which had no access to micro-
phones.
Concerning Nightline'saudience
selection, Senior Guest Producer Ri-
chard Harris said that "the decision
was made not to focus on a specific
subject and not to have a certain kind
of person in the hall. Rather, we tried
to draw from all sides of the political
spectrum."
Rice invited members of the Board
of Trustees and of the administra-
tion,departmentchairs, faculty mem-
bers with research interests in the
area, Student Association officers,
college presidents, Graduate Student
Association Officers and "across sec-
tion of student leadership," accord-
ing to MacDowell.
The Nightline staff required be-
forehand those who had been invited
to floor seats to submit questions
they might ask on air. "We had to
know, to a certain extent, where
people were coming from," said Se-
nior Producer Mark Nelson. "Other-
wise a group that was very well orga-
nized would be able to fill up 100
seats."
Nelson also commented that they
screened the questions in part to
enable the panel to prepare. "Our
intention was to assemble a panel
which could respond to a wide vari-
ety of questions, not to catch them off
guard," he said.
Access to the microphones was
on a first-come, first-served basis.
Shortly before air-time moderator
Ted Koppel announced that people
with questions for the panel should
move to the microphones, and those
well-positioned got there first. Only
12 questions were aired, four from
each of the microphones, leaving
many waiting in line the entire sjiow.
SEE KOPPEL, PAGE 9
Jones College adopts
elementary school classes
by Jeremy Bogaisky
Jones College has volunteered to
run an enrichment program for fourth
and fifth graders at nearby J. Will
Jones Klementary school.
"Last spring we were sitting
around and talking about how we
don't do enough for the community,"
said Jones sophomore Marty
Mikulski. "For some reason I said
'why don't we try and do something
with an elementary school.' We
brought it up at the next Jones cabi-
net meeting, everybody liked it and
here we arc."
School Counselor Cheryl Gattison
outlined the program they expect
from the Jones group. The fourth
and fifth grade teachers put together
a list of subjects which they would
like to see treated, including experi-
ments in chemistry and physics, and
a session on this year's presidential
election.
Gattison expressed guarded opti-
mism as to the success of the project,
citing previous experience with simi-
lar efforts. "Last year a group from
the University of Houston worked
with pre-K and kindergarten," she
said, "that worked out very well."
On Sept 2,35 Jones students vis-
ited the school and met the 4th and
5th graders they'll be working with.
The children filled out a survey about
their academic interests and gave
the Rice students a tour of their
school. "They were really excited,"
said Jones President Kenny Herz,
"and they were really proud of their
school."
"We were all scared," said Jones
sophomore Tandy Pittayathikkun.
"There were like a thousand of them,
but they were so sweet. This one girl
introduced me to her mom. It was so
cute."
The results of the survey revealed
that, as a group, the children's favor-
ite subject is math. Their least favor-
ite subject is also math.
The Jones group plans to come
>back on Sept. 30 with a physics dem-
onstration, featuring, in part, the use
of a remote control car to demon-
strate centripetal force. "We plan to
use the assets of Jones," said Herz.
Future events include a program on
music presented by music majors
from Jones, avisit from Rice athletes,
including Jones seniorTrevor Cobb,
and a trip to the zoo.
Originally Jones planned to run
the program using college funds.
Linda Bramlettofthe university's Of-
fice forCommunity Affairs, however,
'There were like a
thousand of them, but
they were so sweet
This one girl introduced
me to her mom. It was
so cute.'
—Tandy Pittayathikkun
suggested that they ask for financial
support. The college received a
$ 1,000 university sponsered commu-
nity action grant "That was just the
peanut butter on the cake," said H erz.
The college plans to apply for an-
other community action grant in
October. "We're not sure how much
money well need, or exactly what
we're doing," said Herz. Herz and
Mikulski are sure of one thing
though; "We'd like to see this con-
tinue long after we're gone".
"Sometimes we get so caught up
in homework that we don't realize
that there's anything beyond the
hedges," said Mikulski. "We've got
to give something back to the com-
munity."
Jones chose to work with J.W.
Jones Elementary school due to it's
proximity to the Rice campus. Most
of the students come from disadvan-
taged backgrounds. "Some of the
parents drive Lexus's, so there is
some variation, but over two thirds of
the students are on the free lunch
program," said Magnet coordinator
Robin Price.
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Kim, Leezie & Carson, Chad. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 6, Ed. 1 Friday, September 25, 1992, newspaper, September 25, 1992; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245819/m1/7/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.